1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to general cleaning, in particular, to scrapers for removing snow and ice from curved and/or flat surfaces.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In cold climates motorists face the chore each winter of cleaning the windshields, windows, hoods, roofs, and trunk lids of their vehicles after every snowfall and ice storm. Most motorists carry small hand implements in their vehicles for cleaning at least the windshields and windows after a light snowfall or when a thin ice layer has formed overnight. However, after a heavy snowfall, the small hand implement is useless in cleaning the hoods, roofs, and trunk lids, requires many strokes to clean the windshields and windows, and does not protect the user's hands and fingers against snow and ice thrown rearwardly by the scraping edge of the implement. Thus, the motorist must use a large brush, broom, and/or shovel to help remove the snow efficiently and quickly, concomitantly risking damage to the surfaces being cleaned. Although the small hand implement usually fits into a motor vehicle glove compartment, it is often cumbersome for the motorist to carry around an additional large implement, especially in a small automobile.
A small hand implement that protects the user's fingers against snow and ice thrown rearwardly is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,651,572. However, the box-like structure makes the scraping edge inflexible and thus incapable of conforming to curved surfaces. A hand implement that has an edge capable of conforming to curved surfaces is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 2,265,551. However, the edge is made of rubber and is designed for removing water in a pulling action and is incapable of scraping snow and ice in a pushing action. The use of multiple hand implements for removing snow and ice from motor vehicles is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 2,639,454. However, the implements with scraping edges present no barrier against snow and ice thrown rearwardly onto the user's hands and fingers.
Thus, it remains a problem in the cleaning art to provide a single, inexpensive hand implement for efficiently and quickly removing snow and ice from the curved and/or flat surfaces of motor vehicles without causing damage to them.